Football notes: Prophet Brown to USC, Kaiden Bennett on the move, Big Sky update
Bouncing around the football regions near and far:
Prophet Brown is versatile, fast and fun. He’s also a superb student who had Jim Harbaugh reaching out from Michigan, Stanford sending nice notes and Notre Dame winking and waving.
The Monterey Trail High School burner decided on USC with a verbal commitment to play receiver and take reverse handoffs.
Brown dazzled for the Mustangs last fall in earning Bee All-Metro honors and single handedly keeping his team in it against Oak Ridge in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I championship in the wind and rain at Hughes Stadium, catching touchdown strikes of 35, 45 and 61 yards and scoring on a 79-yard reverse in a 35-27 setback.
Other locals who attended USC on football scholarships since the 1960s include safety Artimus “T” Parker out of Sac High, tight end Scott Galbraith of Highlands, cornerback Antuan Simmons of Valley and Dallas Sartz and Cameron Smith of Granite Bay. Each reached the NFL.
Signing on
Other football commits reflective of the depth of talent in the region: Quarterback Ari Patu of Folsom to Stanford and Folsom cornerback teammate Kalen Higgns to Cal; Oak Ridge quarterback Justin Lamson to Syracuse and Cosumnes Oaks linebacker Moses Oladejo to Cal.
Bennett on the move
Kaiden Bennett of Folsom football roots is on the move again, entering the NCAA transfer portal with aim of landing at his third college in less than two years.
The Bee’s 2018 Bee Player of the Year has yet to take a college snap. The quarterback enrolled at Boise State after graduating early from Folsom, then switched to home-state Nevada, in part to be near his father, Derek, who was battling cancer.
Bennett is a spread-option ace with a soft deep-ball touch and terrific speed. Might he land at Sacramento State, which lost 2019 Big Sky Conference Offensive Player of the Year Kevin Thomson to Washington via transfer?
Might make a good fit, considering several of Bennett’s coaches at Folsom now run the show at Sac State.
Big Sky concerns
The Big Sky Conference will have its Football Kickoff Media session Thursday and Friday on Pluto TV that will include preseason coaches and media polls and interviews with coaches and players, starting at 9 a.m.
Big Sky commissioner Tom Wistrcill will start the discussion of what schools plan to do with the coronavirus concern. Will there be a season? Modified scheduling? Moved to the spring?
“Nobody knows but the Big Sky will figure it out and then we’ll adjust,” UC Davis coach Dan Hawkins said.
Remembering Pat Micco
Pat Micco once blocked for famed Cal players Chuck Muncie and Joe Roth and then mixed it up on the rugby circuit, once telling me, “I lived for contact, helmet or not.”
A Bay Area native, Micco died in his El Dorado Hills home earlier this month at 67 from prostate cancer.
Micco was a three-year letterman at Cal in the early 1970s under coach Mike White and a four-year rugby player for the Bears, but his greatest sporting joy was watching son Kelly Micco compete at Jesuit and Sacramento State.
Said Kelly Micco on Facebook, “Our dad is, was and always will be our hero and best friend.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 12:27 PM.